The Arctic Impact Assessment, a four-year study by 300 scientists funded by the United States, Canada, Russia, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Norway and Finland warns that the global warming could drive polar bears to extinction by the end of the 21st century. Polar bears cover tremendous expanses of sea ice to hunt seals, but global warming is causing the ice to melt away more rapidly each year. The extent of sea ice in the Arctic has decreased about eight percent in the past 30 years, resulting in the loss of 386,100 square miles—an area as large as Texas and Arizona combined. The sea ice in Hudson Bay now breaks up two and a half weeks earlier than it did 30 years ago, causing female polar bears to weight 55 pounds less due to lost hunting opportunities.

The effects of global warming are appearing faster and most dramatically in the northern hemisphere. Some parts of the Arctic are warming ten times faster than the rest of the planet. The average winter temperature in Alaska, western Canada and eastern Russia has risen four to six degrees in the past 50 years and is predicted to increase another seven to 13 degrees in the next hundred years.

Earlier this month Russia ratified the Kyoto treaty on global warming. The 1997 treaty will reduce the amount of industrial greenhouse gasses pumped into the atmosphere, but does not go into full effect until ratified by 55 industrial nations accounting for 55 percent of global greenhouse emissions. The United States, which produces 36 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, has slowed implementation by refusing to ratify the treaty. Russia's approval, however, means that the treaty will go into full effect.

Questioned about the Bush administration’s global warming skepticism and its refusal to push for ratification of the Kyoto Treaty, James Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, told the Associated Press: “President Bush strongly opposes any treaty or policy that would cause the loss of a single American job. . . .” The administration promised to fund more studies instead.

On 10-19-04, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Earthjustice, the Center for Biological Diversity and other environmental groups in temporarily stopping road construction on the Sea Level timber sale on Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. The decision blocks logging truck access to 9.5 square miles of the Sea Level Creek watershed until the full appeal is decided upon. Sea Level Creek is the last intact watershed in Thorne Arm on the south side of Revilla Island. It supports important salmon and steelhead runs.

The suit was brought by the Natural Resources Defense Council, Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, The Wilderness Society, Sierra Club, National Audubon Society and the Center for Biological Diversity. It was argued by Tom Waldo of Earthjustice. It asserts that the Forest Service put much more land in logging designations than the agency’s own economists indicated was necessary to supply local mills.

Katie Lee -- Leading Lady of the Mighty Colorado -- to Perform Tucson Benefit for Center for Biological Diversity

Wednesday, November 17, 7:30 p.m.
Anjali Studio, 330 E. 7th St., one block west of Fourth Avenue

Tucson native and living legend Katie Lee--author, musicologist, folk singer, storyteller, former Hollywood actress, songwriter, photographer, filmmaker, activist, poet, and river runner--returns to Tucson November 17 to perform her slideshow "Love Songs to Glen Canyon" as a benefit for the Center for Biological Diversity.

The show, based on Katie's book "All My Rivers are Gone," pays tribute to the singularly beautiful landscape and paradise lost she knew as one of Glen Canyon's foremost explorers before the horrifying event she terms the "damning" of the Colorado in the early 1960's--when her exquisite Eden drowned under 500 feet of water behind Glen Canyon Dam. Katie Lee is one of a handful of men and women who knew the 170 miles of Glen Canyon very well. She made 16 trips down the river, even naming some of the side canyons.

Katie's show encompasses much more than a presentation of her stunning photographs of the Canyon--it is also part poetry, part political commentary, and part folk gathering. Whether she is singing, shouting, or reading from her books, the 85-year-old Katie Lee proves that no one is ever too old to be outrageous and fight the good fight for disappearing wilderness.

Tickets: $10 general/$8 for Center members.
Tickets on sale by phone and in person at three Tucson locations:
Antigone Books, 411 N. Fourth Avenue (520) 792-3715
Reader's Oasis, 3400 E. Speedway (520) 319-7887
KXCI Community Radio, 220 S. Fourth Avenue (520) 623-1000
Tickets also on sale (WILL CALL only) at the Center's website:online.

For more information call Julie at (520) 623-5252 ext. 303.

Center for Biological Diversity | PO Box 710 Tucson, AZ 85702 | 520-623-5252 | [email protected]

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